1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fan tray, and more particularly to a hot swap fan tray.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The so-called fan tray indicates the assemblage including a tray having a number of fans mounted thereon. Once some fan has a breakdown, the controller starts the redundant fan or accelerates the speed so as to compensate the decreased cooling ability.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional fan tray 10 includes a plurality of fans 20 and a tray 30. The tray 30 includes an opening 33, a bottom plate 35, four side walls and thus has the shape of an oblong box. The bottom plate 35 further includes a fan guard 37 formed thereon. The fan 20 is vertically mounted on the tray 30 through the opening 33. Besides, screws 50 attaching the fan 20 to the bottom plate 35 of the tray 30. During assembling, the conventional fan tray 10 is mounted to a heat-generating device (i.e. a server) in the manner that the opening 33 faces to the server and the fan guard 37 faces outward. Besides, each of the fans is connected to the controller 60 by means of electrical wire, such as the signal or the power line.
However, the conventional fan tray 10 suffers from the problem that it is not easy to mount and remove the fan 20. Especially, during disassembling, the problem is more serious. For example, the fan tray 10 is used to dissipate the heat from a server. Once some fan has a failure and is desired to replace, it is difficult to remove the broken fan from the tray. The user has to previously remove the entire fan tray 10 from server the server and subsequently replaces the broken fan. The reason is described in detail as follows. Since the broken fan is mounted on the tray 30 by screws and the fan guard 37 faces the user, the fan guard 37 obstructs the user to directly remove the broken fan 20 from the fan tray 10. The user has to previously remove the entire fan tray 10 and then turn and make the opening 33 face himself. After that, the user is able to remove the broken fan. Under the condition described above, there is not enough time to replace the broken fan.
Further, as shown in FIG. 1, each of the fans 20 is equipped with electrical wires 25 (i.e. the power line or the signal line) to connect the controller 60. However, the electrical wires 25 are exposed and thus disorder the heat-generating device.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a novel fan tray having hot swap fan to solve the above-mentioned problems. Besides, it is preferred that the novel fan tray also prevents the electrical wires from disorder.
The present invention relates to a fan tray, and more particularly to a hot swap fan tray. The fan tray includes at least one fan, a tray and a controller. Among these, the tray includes at least one alignment post, at least one resilient fastener and one end of the connector. The fan includes an alignment hole and another end of the connector. After the alignment post slides into the alignment hole, the resilient fastener fastens the fan. Meanwhile, the end of the connector electrical contacts another end of the connector.
In sum, the resilient fastener and the alignment post make the fan align to and connect with the tray easy and quickly. That is, the present invention is capable of hot swap. In addition, the electrical contact from the fan to the controller is formed while the fan is mounted on the tray.